VR ‘Fallout 4’ And ‘Doom’ To Push Virtual Reality Revolution
Fallout 4 is coming to VR. Will this change the minds of VR skeptics?
Bethesda is aggressively developing its virtual reality front with the playable VR versions of Doom on the recent QuakeCon in Texas and the announcement of Fallout 4 on HTC Vive VR last June. What are we expecting from these two Bethesda franchises in the next months?
Fallout 4’s full immersive VR remake was announced at Bethesda’s E3 2016 conference in June. With HTC Vive’s room-scale VR technology, complete with Vive wand controllers, gamers are expecting the transition to be both natural and exciting.
“Showcasing only the shooter mechanics left us with little idea how Fallout 4’s RPG side works, although using the Vive controllers did allow us to pick up and inspect items. It’s easy to imagine how they might extend to the minutiae though–accessing the Pip-boy (worn on your wrist) could bring up an essentially point-and-click interface, allowing you to control aspects like inventory management, character development, and quest logs in a similar fashion to the non-VR version of the game.”
Doom, on the other hand, was already phenomenal at its earliest stages. Road to VR sat down with Doom VR Executive Producer Marty Stratton, and they discover that there is much work going on between the VR teams of Doom and Fallout in terms of VR development.
“Absolutely, there is a ton of collaboration. I can’t really go into the specifics of it, but it definitely is and has been a Bethesda initiative for a while now. A lot of collaboration between the teams with the Fallout stuff and the Doom stuff. It’s been really nice.”
But while Fallout 4 devs has kept quiet about what kind of VR material they’re producing for Fallout 4 in 2017, whether they will create the VR title as a Fallout 4 port on VR or an entirely different material altogether, Stratton voices out what he envisions for Doom. When asked whether he thinks Doom will also be coming out with a final, purchasable product, he hinted there would be.
“There is, I’m sure, a Doom product in there and we are kind of molding the clay right now as to what that becomes. I think the important thing is that we just don’t think of it as a Doom port to VR. That’s not the right way to go about it. It is about creating a Doom experience within VR that is made for VR.”
Wired’s Matt Kamen terribly enjoyed the Doom VR and feels that with the Gamescom’s four-section Doom VR build, which consists of an an orienting viewer mode for interacting with objects, a first person shootout with waves of monsters in a darkened corridor, an arena mode in a huge hell level from Doom, and a boss fight, the Doom VR demo looks very close to finished software.
Game Reactor notes that while they felt a very slight twinge of motion sickness at the first arena (the viewer mode), by the second arena, they were completely adjusted and well into the moment of fighting against waves and waves of Doom monsters.
Kamen noted the following.
“Having tested (very) early builds of both [Doom and Fallout 4] on HTC Vive out at Gamescom, [VR] revolution seems like a distinct possibility. Both feel as though they have the potential to significantly evolve the virtual reality gaming market, bringing in players looking for familiarity and proven high-quality experience within a new field. How successful they are in this will depend greatly on how they shape up before release though.”
As of now, Fallout 4 VR is scheduled to come out in 2017, while there is no official announcement on the release date of Doom VR. While you wait, fancy yourself a look at the Doom VR gameplay below.
[Image via Bethesda]
